Welcome our little bundles of Joy

Tuesday June 8th at 3:36 pm we welcomed Andy Leigh to this world. She weighed at a beefy 1285 grams or just under 2 pounds 13 ounces. At 3:37 pm we welcomed both Shauna Hope and finally Paige Lynn weighing in at 909 grams or 2 pounds and 1155 grams or 2 pounds and 6 ounces, respectively.

Tuesday was a wonderful day for us. Stephanie Renee and I were able to welcome these wonderful little girls to our lives with so much love not only from her immediate family but also so much love from all of our friends and family. Although some of you are learning this for the first time it was such a delight to hear about all the support and love that has been pouring out in our direction for of course it will be such a long road for our family to get these girls home.

With the help of Stephanie's mom and my parents it has made our transitition into this new adventure as easy as it could be. It has been such as awesome experience to spend the last 8 weeks with Stephanie's mom in our home as she truly does not understand what she has brought to our house over these last few weeks. I believe as a mother, nana, and a mother-in-law she put her heart out there for all six of us over the past 8 weeks and there are absolutely no words that can be said about her and her family back home as they have all supported nana being here instead of being home with her husband and the rest of the family. The dedication that she has shown to all of us here in our home will never be forgotten and it has truly been so rewarding for me to know that the love that is felt for my family from the MacKenzie's is so strong and deep. I have said it to Stephanie once and I feel I need to share it with you but I feel that without her Stephanie would not have made it to 29 weeks, I would have been a ball of stress and headaches as I know I would have been spread way to thin to be able to handle all that was needed to be done for the little ones, for Stephanie, and for Renee. She truly was the glue that kept this ship afloat over the last 8 weeks.

To my parents, they too have stepped up since moving to Ladner and really helped our family and also Shirley, Stephanie's mom, continue on our journey for complete success in the pregnancy. The dinners, the coffees, the bed changes, the babysitting has all been so great for us to have so close to home and been so gratifying to know that it was all done with such a pleasure and with so much love for us.

To all of you who were involved in getting us to 29 weeks in our pregnancy whether it was in physical help or just personal prayers you have no idea how much it helped and we appreciate it all from the bottoms of our hearts.

OK so now that that is out it is back to our dear little girls. On Tuesday we went in for a general ultrasound and quickly realized that this was going to be the day that our girls were going to enter the world. Shauna Hope, as Patty likes to call her, had complete reverse flow in her umbilical cord and that is an immediate red light for the pregnancy. This if it were to continue for too long would cause severe complications for the entire pregnancy so therefore the doctors instantaneously told us that they were going to be born.

Although a bit of a shock, Stephanie and I were ready for it and had no problem with what was happening to us. We had met our goal of 28 weeks and so therefore we were all smiles that these girls were going to be introduced to us so soon.

As I described above the girls came out without real concern as they all came out quite small however their voices said that they were ready for what ever is going to happen over the next few weeks as we prepare to bring them home. The road from Tuesday until they come home will truly be a long one as we expect to have them in intensive care for 8 to 12 weeks depending on their development over the next few weeks. Physically, these babies are so perfect. Small yes but so strong. Stephanie gave these girls such an awesome first 29 weeks with her perfect diet and such strong mental health that we know that they will fight to get out as quickly and successfully as possible. 29 week old babies is something that one doctor told us, "could be done in his sleep," of course there will be bumps in the road but that is to be expected because these girls have a lot of developing to do still.

So what has happened since they were born, well Shauna Hope is our strongest baby up to this point, she has not been intubated at all, meaning she has yet to receive any breathing support. The other two on the other hand within the first 7 hours needed to have a surfactant added to their lungs in order for their lungs to remain open as they were beginning to notice that they would need it or the lungs would collapse. This was all normal however of course never nice to have done. The babies were put under and intubated (a breathing tube put into their lungs), where they first administered the surfactant and then helped them breathe for a few hours. By Wednesday morning Paige had had her tube removed and Andy had hers removed later in the day. Since then it has really been extremely uneventful, which is awesome. Paige has had some high blood pressure and also spat up breast milk a few times but for the most part she has been fabulous.

Right now all three are in incubators of course and they have a tube connected to their nose that creates positive pressure for their lungs and then there is an I-V going into their hands and a feeding tube going directly into their stomachs. The incubator is sitting at about 35 degrees celsius and at a humidity of about 65 % I think. Stephanie said that they are like little heating elements as they are so warm when they are strapped to you for Kangaroo Care. Kangaroo care is described as skin to skin contact which helps the babies as they strive with the natural setting instead of the artificial one.

Stephanie is doing well. Never a complaint or anything about any of this, she truly is a rock as so many of you know. She received a spinal and an epidural and the epidural went a little wrong before the c-section as the needle nicked her spinal cord and the fluid leaked into her spinal column ( I think I got that right, I grow plants not humans??????). This has led to many headaches that were getting worse and worse over the last few days. Yesterday she had a blood patch done in order to try to seal the hole from leaking into her spinal column. It worked however whenever you play in the spine you also have back pain and other pains so she will need a few days to recoop from that. Because Stephanie is really the only one who is able to go in and see the babies she has been able to hold both Shauna and Andy for about an hour and a half each. It is said that "Kangaroo Care" truly is the best way to get these girls over hurdles that they may encounter over the next few weeks.

So how have we been coping, well that side could be a little better, Renee and Daddy are both suffering from colds and well this is definately a no-no when it comes to visiting the babies. I saw them a few times the first day and a half however since then I have not been able so say hi to them, Renee has yet to meet her little sisters but I think because of her age she is ok with it.

Yes I have pictures however they are on the camera at the hospital. I will get them today and hopefully I will have them up here tomorrow.

Thank you again to everyone and I can not begin to extend all the appreciation that is needed to be extended to you all.

Love Stephanie, Ron, Renee, Shauna, Paige and Andy, aka......to be determined as I am not going to be able to write all those names out each time I sign off. lol